With Hallets Point, Dursts take their next big development off the grid

The next time a power failure knocks out the lights in New York City on a steamy summer night, the residents of at least one apartment complex will still be streaming Netflix in their air-conditioned apartments.

On Thursday morning, developers will break ground on what is believed to be one of the first residential complexes in New York City to function independently of the power grid.

Story Continued Below

The up-to-2,400-apartment, $1.5 billion Astoria complex Hallets Point will have three of its own power-generation facilities.

“The only connection to any utility will be gas from Con Edison” to fuel the development’s power plants, according to Jody Durst, the president of the Durst Organization, which is developing the project.

Those three “co-generating” plants will use that natural gas, whose delivery is not reliant on the electrical grid, to create up to 6.8 megawatts of electricity. The byproduct will be used to heat apartments, heat water and chill water for air conditioning in the summer months.

The onsite facility could be as much as 80 percent efficient, meaning that only 20 percent of the energy used to create electricity would be lost. (Conventional buildings achieve roughly 35 percent efficiency.)

That the Dursts should be taking this step is unsurprising.

For developers, the Dursts are famously eco-friendly. The skyscraper they built at One Bryant Park was the country’s first LEED platinum office building. They own an organic farm upstate. In 2011, Durst Organization chairman Douglas Durst dressed up as a tree for Halloween.

The Durst investment of $43 million in onsite power plants will enable it to save money on energy in the long run, market itself as a sustainably-minded developer and give it some survivalist autonomy should the surrounding power grid go down.

"We will probably learn a lot from this project in terms of operational viability and economic viability," said Karl Rábago, head of the Pace Energy and Climate Center.

"The metric for success is, 'Can you keep energy services at an acceptable level for people that are behind the wall?'"

The project will also let the Dursts distance themselves from Con Ed.

The family, along with the city's other energy-minded developers, has bucked under a series of fees exacted by the utility for use of its grid. One Bryant Park, for example, has to export power generated by its own internal plant back onto the grid, which then relays power back into the building.

Con Edison argues that because the Dursts are using their infrastructure, they have to pay their fair share, or else the costs for upkeep get passed on to other customers.

The Dursts say costs associated with that cumbersome arrangement have diminished the advantages of producing their own power.

“ConEd has their reasons, but those reasons make it difficult for us to have an environmentally responsible cogen facility that’s backed up by Con Edison,” said Durst.

The fees represent one among many issues being eyed by state policymakers as they seek to upend how the grid is operated in New York. Facilities like Hallets Point — which will essentially be one large microgrid — are exactly the type of thing the state's energy reformers are hoping to encourage.

Still, Rábago said, as an academic exercise, the project could yield more data if it were connected to the grid and were thus able both to sustain itself and export surplus power to other New Yorkers.

"You could be prolonging the life of the nearby grid, you could be prolonging the life of substations," he said.

The opportunity to study the project, its environmental and economic viability will invariably help developers moving forward and could motivate more to follow suit, as Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration grapples with its goal of cutting building emissions 80 percent by 2050.

"Thank goodness for the pioneers, because they inspire us," Rábago said.

CORRECTION: This original version of this article suggested that this complex would be the first in New York City to be separated from the grid entirely. Rochdale Village in Queens is off the grid. Penn South in Cheslea is mostly off the grid (with the exception of some commercial tenants).